Jamie VanderLinden

Despite an aggressive outing, the Jazz fell 71-88 to Phoenix Saturday afternoon at the Rocky Mountain Revue. Phoenix was the first to strike jumping out to a 0-5 lead. Gordon Chiesa called a quick time out where he advised the team, "Don't give Jacobsen any space. Play body to body." Utah grabbed the lead 15-9 forcing Phoenix to take the time out. The first quarter was the only quarter where Utah outscored the Suns, 23-21.

In the second quarter, Utah scored only eleven points. The Jazz were outscored by ten in the paint. Chiesa encouraged Borchardt to "beg for the ball." With a minute left in the quarter, Kirk Snyder limped to the bench and eventually to the locker room with Gary Briggs. He returned with a wrap around his calf. The last play of the half, Lampe stole the ball and passed ahead to Barbosa for the dunk. Phoenix went into the break ahead by nine.

During half-time, the All-Tournament Team was announced. Making the grade was Devin Brown of San Antonio, Leandro Barbosa of Phoenix, Curtis Borchardt of Utah, Luol Deng of Chicago, and Nikoloz Tskitishvili of Denver. The MVP of the Tournament was Jason Kapono for Charlotte.

Phoenix scored the first four points of the third quarter, but Raul and Kirk led the Jazz back. Raul began the Jazz run with a pass to Waleskowski for a lay in. Next, Snyder hit a turn around, then stole the ball from Phoenix and outlet ahead to Lopez who gave it back to Kirk for the reverse and one. The lead was now 41-49 with about seven minutes left in the third. On Phoenix's next play, Snyder drew a foul on Lampe. When Lampe complained to the official, he was given a technical.

Utah continued to hustle through the third quarter. Unfortunately, Phoenix could not miss a shot, and Utah was not getting any breaks from the officials. With four minutes left in the period, Raul dove to the ground to break up a fast break for the Suns knocking the ball off Phoenix and out-of-bounds. Then, Raul came down the floor and casually hit a three pointer. Lopez and Snyder were run over and knocked around under Phoenix's basket with one minute left. They both were slow to get up and questioned the refs how there could be no call on the play. The quarter ended with the Suns ahead, 52-65.

Between the third and fourth quarters, Coach Chiesa urged the Jazz saying, "I know we have at least two more spurts left in us." Utah played with intensity, but it wasn't enough in the fourth. With about four minutes left in the game, the Jazz were down by twenty points. Utah had twenty-two turnovers resulting in twenty-five points for the Suns. Utah was slow to get back on defense giving up seventeen fast break points and forty-four points in the paint.

Kirk Snyder led the Jazz with twenty points on 8 for 17 shooting from the field. He also ended the game on a high note with a huge slam. Then, he was the first man back to the other end of the court. Curtis Borchardt was the second leading scorer with twelve points, six rebounds, and five blocks. Kris Humphries, Maurice Williams, and Dan McClintock all sat out this game. Humphries with a sprained ankle, and Mo with a strained calf. The Jazz ended the Revue 3-4. Now, all we can do is wait patiently for the season to start watching tapes of old Jazz games.